How Low Can Writing Go?

Are Tomorrow’s Leaders of Business, Journalism, and Politics Ready to Communicate Effectively. What about Tomorrow’s Authors?

Think about this, the students in middle school today will be tomorrow’s leaders. Shouldn’t we prepare them for the world ahead?

You only need to visit the Internet and most social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others to recognize that command of written English is losing ground. There are typos, shorthand, and errors on sites that offer us news, educational and technical information for consumers, hobbyists, and the general public. Would you trust someone whose communication skills are lacking?

There is a movement, if it is, I choose to be a hoax, or not to eliminate the teaching of cursive writing being taught in schools. Parents should check their child’s curriculum and verify that cursive handwriting is being taught to their child or take it upon themselves to request it of the school district. If that fails, it is the parents’ duty to teach their child cursive handwriting.

Who is at Fault for the high need of Remediation of High School Graduates?

There is more than enough blame to go around from parents who don’t look at their child’s homework, teachers who are over-worked and underpaid, bilingual education which exacerbates not assimilating into English, core standards, the government’s no child left behind report sent to President Regan and the Department of Education to the rewriting of books that the far right in America is trying to do to the point of ignoring history so as to not offend someone. There are some that still deny some history like the holocaust and genocide conducted by governments to various religions. There is an old quote, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Originally attributed to George Santayana.

Another thought, The United States of America stands as the only industrialized nation without a designated language. That’s right, although English is taught in schools, the United States Congress has never passed a bill to make English the designated language. There have been many bills generated to create a designated language, no bill has ever made it to the desk of the President of the United States for signature.

The dumbing down of standards actually began in the 1960s with the emphasis on test scores rather than actual learning how to study, writing, reading, math and science. There was more emphasis on test scores than learning what students need for the real world like learning how to comprehend what they read in their textbooks and basic computation and communication skills.

With both parents required to work to survive the new economic reality, some have scant time to make parent teachers meetings that were held in the 1940s and 1950s when one parent could afford to stay home. Parents not checking the curriculum of their children and involved in what was being taught to their child.

The statistics about reading are abysmal, most parents and children do not read other than what is required for a class and nothing more, the loss of reading comprehension and reading level is one reason for remediation of college freshmen. How can one develop reading comprehension if they don’t read to gain both comprehension and vocabulary expansion?

How can parents who don’t read expect their children read?

In the 1940s and 50s

Students were held to higher academic standards for extra-curricular activities. There were dress codes, children showed respect to teachers and administrators. Misbehavior was dealt with swiftly. Parents were kept abreast of their children’s discipline and behavior misdeeds.

This does not mean corporal punishment but sent to a separate classroom allowing the class to continue learning. The use of school detention with a note to the parents was the rule of the day.

Parents were more involved with their child’s education.

Is your child’s school offering parent-teacher conferences and do you attend?

All schools should hold parent-teacher conferences. Parents should demand to speak to their child’s teacher(s) and work at helping their child with core knowledge in reading comprehension, writing, math, and science. If their child is lacking in a specific area, asking the teacher for more work or requesting how a parent can help their child is in order.

Ultimately, the concept of solid core education is what will help the child in the future when they are ready for college to not have to be remediated to handle college-level textbooks and writing assignments. Some courses require blue book tests where the student must write a short essay dealing with the question on a test while others may require a term paper.

In college, part of a student’s grade is how well they can communicate in writing to explain a position or concept related to the course matter.

Written and oral communication is important for everyday intercourse but more so in the college environment.

A person’s command of writing and vocabulary strength are requirements for their ability to clearly express and explain their meaning at work or in classroom discussions with their college professor.

You or your child can build a larger vocabulary by the simple act of reading and use of a lexicon for words that are unclear, unknown or unusual to find their meaning and proper usage.

Reading not only helps you and your child, you also help authors by purchasing their book, checking out a book at your local library and posting a review. If you enjoy a specific book, please be kind enough to tell your friends why you liked it and recommend that they read the book. They might recommend a book for you to read that they enjoyed reading. Spreading the word at the office is an excellent way to practice oral communication skills and public speaking albeit one-on-one building interpersonal skills comfort.

We all need to practice or upgrade our basic communication skills unless we begin to backtrack on our abilities and failing to maintain our written and oral communication with others. Practicing also helps the continual growth of our vocabulary to make our meaning clear and concise to the person you are communicating with to understand your meaning as clearly as you think you are presenting the information in your mind.

Practice and preparation are the two main ingredients in communicating your thoughts to readers and through interpersonal intercourse among friends, teachers, and business associates. This also leads to being comfortability when communicating orally and in your writing.

Nathaniel Hawthorne said it best about written communication, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.”

There is no substitute for learning the basic core skills of reading, writing, math and science to create a will rounded intelligent person able to communicate with others and not be misunderstood.

6 comments

Good writing really began to suffer with the advent of email and social media. People abbreviated, truncated sentences, used emoticons. This carries over into real life. I actually read a resume once and the applicant had inserted little smileys into the text of the resume. “I’m good with people” (little smile emoticon here). “I left the position due to company downsizing” (little frown here). I’m serious.